Road to Ninja: ItaSaku style
by EmeraldMoonStar
Summary: Naruto and Sakura are still stuck in the illusionary world and Sakura, determined to return to her world, seeks help from the most unlikely source.
1. Chapter 1

**I know I should be updating my stories, but instead I'm writing a twoshot. This is based off of Road to Ninja, so if you haven't seen it, I recommend looking it up. The full thing is on Youtube. Obviously, this contains spoilers. Enjoy!**

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Everything was wrong. So very very wrong. Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Naruto were still stuck in this fake Tsukuyomi world. They had been too late in trying to return to their own world; the moon had returned to its normal coloring before Sakura had finished deciphering the scroll that Madara had sliced. The evil version of Naruto had vanished and the blond had been forced to tell Kushina and Minato that he hadn't meant what he said before and that he must have hit his head rather hard.

Until Sakura managed to figure out how to return, the two decided to just play along and try to not arouse suspicion in this new world. Naruto didn't mind the extra time with his parents in the slightest. He still cringed at being called Menma, but it was a small price to pay to be with the parents he loved so much.

Sakura was much less fortunate. She was tired of her constantly silent house and would give anything for her mother to nag her again. She and Ino were still best friends in this world, but this Ino was shyer than the normal Hinata, and Sakura just wanted her friend back. And Hinata, Sakura was avoiding her like the plague. She was extremely hostile and threatened Sakura anytime she was within a five foot radius of Naruto. She missed the intelligent conversations she would have with Shikamaru; the one here could barely handle a conversation without irritating her.

And Sasuke…he was completely reversed. He flirted with every attractive girl in sight and frequently implored Sakura to tell him when she was upset. She didn't trust this Sasuke in the slightest. She also wasn't sure about whether or not he trained with Orochimaru or hated his brother or the circumstances behind the Uchiha massacre, since that was one of the few things that had not changed. If Tsunade-sama had hired the Akatsuki, it must mean that Itachi was either innocent or too powerful to refuse his help.

These musings continued as she walked around Konoha (or, at least she thought it was still called that) in a daze. Maybe she'd ask Sasuke about his family. He was less secretive, so he might actually tell her. She'd have to be clever about it, though, since she was expected to already know this.

Speak of the devil, there he was. He was talking to some busty brunette and flashed her a grin. Sakura snorted. It was still absurd to see Sasuke acting like this. It no longer hurt as it once did, however. This was not the man she fell in love with and just wanted the real Sasuke, as unrealistic as that desire was. As she walked by, she grabbed Sasuke by the back of his shirt and dragged him down the street without even breaking her stride. She made it about half a block before he wrenched himself out of her clutches.

"Sakura, what was that for? I was in the middle of something!"

"More like you would have been if I hadn't come by." She rolled her eyes while he smirked. "I actually had a question for you."

His smirk intensified. "Oh, now you're interested. I'm sorry my dear Sakura-chan, but you missed you chance."

Sakura punched him none too lightly on the arm. "Oh, shut up, Sasuke-kun. I was actually wondering about your brother." He shot her a questioning look before she continued. "I mean, do you ever see him?"

His questioning look fell towards an expression of indifference. "Yeah, sometimes. If he's finished with a job near the area, we'll have dinner or something. Why?" He stopped to stare her down.

She merely shrugged. "I'd just like to talk to him is all."

A sly grin slowly appeared on Sasuke's face. "You've fallen madly in love with him since he rescued you and want to thank him properly!" He eyed her in a slightly less than predatory way, appraising her. Sakura slapped the back of his head in indignation. "Oww, okay okay, so maybe not. But I'll tell you when I see him next. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a conversation to get back to." He winked over Sakura's shoulder to the girl from before while Sakura just scoffed.

"Go get 'em, tiger," she grumbled before marching to the archives. She had established that she was still the Hokage's apprentice, so she still had access to files. She had also checked her age groups files to see if the jutsu was the same. While she was still confused as to how Shikamaru used his jutsu without a strategic thinking style and how Shino and Kiba managed when one despised bugs and the other hated dogs, there were no changes. The teams had remained the same as well. How team 10 functioned was beyond her.

Upon arriving, Sakura delved deep into the files to try and find something on the Uchiha massacre. Surprisingly, it wasn't hidden as well as she expected. Sakura grabbed the scroll and plopped down where she was unceremoniously and began to read.

Sasuke and Itachi were the only two Uchiha still living, that much remained the same. However, Itachi had been out on a mission when the massacre happened, providing him with an airtight alibi. The culprit was never identified, but assumed to be the masked man that was the evil Naruto. No justice ever happened and Itachi had left the village soon after. The Sandaime hadn't specified the reason in his report. It did state that he had never taken a job that went against Konoha (guess the name is the same) or compromised it in any way.

Why Itachi was the leader of the Akatsuki instead of Pein still escaped her, but this was a boatload of information she hadn't known before. From her brief encounter, his personality appeared unchanged as well as his intelligence. If there was anyone that might know something about this crimson moon and any way of undoing Tsukuyomi, it was Itachi. Unfortunately, there was nothing to do except wait for Itachi to come around.

* * *

It was another month before Sasuke fatefully invited Sakura to come have dinner with him and Itachi. Sakura had thrown herself into as many shifts at the hospital as she could physically handle in the meantime. As terrible as it sounds, Sakura had been trying to minimize the amount of chakra she used on each patient, yet still achieve maximum results. Her reasoning was that it the patients are fake anyway and would it help with her stamina. With her level of chakra control, there wasn't much improvement that could be done, but it was worth a shot. She had a golden opportunity as a medic and was going to take advantage of it as long as she could.

She knocked on Sasuke's front door and waited. At least he still lived in the same place, that much was unlikely to change. She was definitely nervous. After all, the last time she had seen the _real_ Itachi, it was from across the battlefield. Even though it was a fake with only a quarter of his strength, he was the most powerful shinobi she had ever come across. Fighting him alone with him at full strength is a terrifying prospect. Even her last encounter with this Itachi was strange. She was grateful that he rescued her, but was not overly pleased that he felt the need to keep a vice-like grip on her forearm or carry her like she was a damsel in distress. It had definitely took some convincing her him to let her go after Naruto. Why he was so protective, she had no idea.

Before she could think more about it, Sasuke opened the door and smiled at her. Even though she had no romantic inclination towards this Sasuke, she could not help but be taken by his smile. "Hi Sasuke-kun, I hope I'm not late." She rubbed her upper arm sheepishly. This amount of nerves was ridiculous. He shook his head and stood aside for her to come in. She did so and followed him to the dining room.

"You're just in time, Sakura. Dinner is almost ready, just go sit at the table." He walked towards the kitchen to leave her by herself. Evidently, Itachi had not arrived yet. Three places were set: the head of the table, and the left and right hand side. Sakura sat on the left and looked around, trying to find any sort of minute difference from the real world. When she found none, she glared at her plate in frustration. After a few seconds of doing so, she felt eyes on her. Mentally cringing and fearing just who she would find, she slowly turned her head. Fears confirmed, she looked to find Uchiha Itachi staring at her with a very slight raise of his eyebrow.

"I was making sure Sasuke hadn't done anything to the plate. He'd find it hilarious if it broke." Itachi shot her a mildly amused look before taking his place across from her.

"I'm Sakura, by the way."

Itachi inclined his head in respond. "Itachi."

When Sasuke returned from the kitchen carrying three steaming plates of shrimp tempura and onigiri, scared of what he would find. Sakura and Itachi were the smartest ninja he knew and an argument between the two would be astronomical. Or, would he find them doing things he would definitely prefer not to picture his brother and teammate doing, especially not together? He craned his ears for any kind of warning they could discern. He heard a low murmur of conversation, but could not gather specifics. Bracing himself, he walked in to see his brother and teammate talking.

"Probably scarring on the retina and fraying of the optic nerve, causing a leak in chakra, making it as inefficient as it is dangerous." Sakura stared down Itachi, waiting on his rebuttal.

"It is not inefficient, it-" He stopped when he saw Sasuke. It took Sasuke a minute to recover before he placed the plates down in front of his guests and then took his place at the head of the table.

* * *

After dinner, Sakura briefly excused herself, probably to go to the bathroom. As soon as she was out of the room, Sasuke rounded on Itachi with a look that demanded answers. "What in the world were you two arguing about?"

"The finer points of Sharingan usage." Itachi looked troubled before he continued. "There's something about your teammate." Sasuke smirked and was about to make a rather inappropriate pass before catching the look on Itachi's face and closed his mouth. "Something about her chakra seems off."

Sasuke looked puzzled. "She's the same old Sakura. A bit more withdrawn, but nothing unusual." Itachi still didn't look convinced and a look of understanding crossed Sasuke's face. "And what exactly do you plan to do to find out more?" Itachi merely smirked.

Sakura returned to find the two brothers having a staring contest and was hesitant to interrupt. After all, she had found out some useful information from Itachi. Turns out, the moon would change color at the next full moon, which was four weeks away. While Itachi had been understandably reluctant to disclose details of Tsukuyomi, once Sakura explained that she was a medic-nin and had a natural affinity for genjutsu, he had been more informative. The only way to break it is if another Sharingan user with the same blood as the caster tries, and even then it is difficult. Meaning, only Sasuke or Itachi could break this. Sakura had yet to figure out just how to get their assistance when Itachi broke her out of her reverie.

"Sakura." She snapped her head over to look at him while Sasuke watched his brother curiously. "You may attempt to heal my eyes, if you wish."

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**Okay, as much as I adore ItaSaku, it's absolutely _insane_ when it is more canon than SasuSaku in a movie. I mean really, Itachi's constant hold on Sakura is more than the situation required. I loved it to bits, but the lack of realism troubles me. Anyway, reviews are awesome. I could really go for some of those.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I know it's about time I updated. Let me just say, this was very tricky to write. Hope you enjoy!**

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Social niceties forgotten, Sakura merely gawked at the elder Uchiha in complete shock. "W-What?" This was all she could manage to choke out in her current state. True, they had conflicting opinions on the Sharingan and the damage it posed to the user, but she had never said a word about being able to heal it, nor had he implied that he needed it to be done. His offer had come out of nowhere and made little sense. Amid staring at him, she regarded him suspiciously. Getting Hinata to consent to an eye exam a few months ago had been a nightmare with her father threatening all sorts of horrors if her Byakugan was less than perfect. If Hinata was that difficult, any Uchiha in their right mind should be downright impossible, yet here was arguably the most stubborn of them all offering without any prompting at all. Either his eyesight was so poor that swallowing his pride and asking for help was unavoidable, or her initial evaluation of his personality was off the mark by a longshot.

Sakura's eyes had always been like an open book and Sasuke saw that she was wary. He couldn't blame her, really, as he had no idea what his brother was playing at. This was most unusual of him, as it usually took him being close to death or physically overpowered and dragged into the hospital for him to go. Deciding Itachi had a good reason for this, Sasuke uncharacteristically stayed silent and watched how this would play out.

Itachi couldn't help but smirk at the girl. She might as well have put her confusion on a flashing billboard. "You seem to be under the impression that my eyes are incredibly damaged from Sharingan usage and are unwilling to believe otherwise. I have evidence to further strengthen my point that I will show you." He raised an eyebrow in a subtle challenge. "Unless of course you do not possess the skill to see it."

Sasuke's eyes widened noticeably. If Itachi had been any other ninja, he be dead before he even knew what happened to him. Not even Shikamaru was stupid enough to provoke Sakura is such a manner. Her temper was not to be taken lightly. If he had known the evening was going to be this interesting, he would have sold tickets. Or at least invited Menma; he'd get a real kick out of this.

Sakura puffed out of indignation and glared murderously at Itachi. "You wouldn't have offered if you thought I was incompetent." She quickly raised both eyebrows in an undeniable challenge and her eyes flashed dangerously. Her fists were clenched and shaking slightly. She knew that she couldn't blatantly attack; he'd kill her without batting an eyelash, let alone not help her with her dilemma. She was still working on just what to do with that. "I will take a look at your eyes and see if the degree of damage is even reversible." She unclenched her fists in an attempt to look less threatening.

Itachi resisted the urge to shake his head at her stubbornness. This girl certainly was a piece of work. He had thought so when she had tried to shake him off during the masked man's attack. He had thought her suicidal for wanting to leave his side during a battle of those proportions. Now she was being argumentative for the sake of trying to fire him up. While she was an interesting adversary and debating philosophy with her would have been rather enjoyable, stupidly arguing about things she did not understand was trying his patience.

He nodded in assent. "Tomorrow at dawn at the training fields." He now turned his attention to Sasuke, who was trying his best not to laugh at how irritated Sakura had made his brother. He usually had to work at it a while to get Itachi mildly annoyed, but by the looks of it, Sakura had nearly given him a migraine in a matter of a few sentences. Itachi noticed his amusement and shot him a look promising retribution. "I have a long mission coming up, so I'll take my leave. Goodnight." He shot the two teammates a look best described as predatory before letting himself out.

As soon as the front door closed with a decisive click, Sasuke burst into the laughter he had been holding in. Sakura stared at him as though he had grown three heads. "I don't know what you did, but I've never seen him so bothered!" His laughter had died down to just chuckling now and wiped a tear from his eye.

It was still really weird to hear Sasuke laugh and even though it wasn't her Sasuke, she couldn't help but smile at seeing him so happy. She rubbed the back of her head shyly. "I don't know, I wasn't trying to. I guess he just doesn't like me." Sasuke scoffed, but before he could say anything, she spoke again. "Hey, I have to survive your brother's wrath when I prove him wrong tomorrow, so I'll need some sleep." Sasuke smirked in agreement and held the front door open for her. "Thank you for dinner, Sasuke-kun."

"Goodnight Sakura."

She waved before he shut the door, but instead of heading to her tomb of an apartment, she instead headed to Naruto's parents' house. It was a little late, but not enough to alarm anyone if someone knocked on their door. Normally, Naruto wouldn't care when she showed up, but now he had parents and they did not appreciate visitors during all hours of the night.

When she knocked, it was Kushina that answered and looking a little confused and eyed Sakura warily. "I'm sorry to bother you, but could I see Menma please?"

Kushina appraised her for a second before stepping aside to let Sakura in. "Menma! Sakura-san is here to see you!" Sakura flinched, both at the shouting and at the honorific. Neither Minato nor Kushina liked her, that much was clear, and even though they were not real, it stung.

Naruto appeared, also looking bewildered, but not hostile. "Hi, Sakura-chan! What's up?" He led her back to his room for some privacy. As much as he loved his parents, he didn't want to have private conversations in front of them. He stretched out on his bed while Sakura leaned against his dresser with her arms crossed in front of her.

"I'm working on a way to get us out of here." Naruto sat up and tilted his head.

"Sakura-chan, we missed our chance. How are we supposed to get back without that weird red moon?" He didn't sound too upset about this.

"Naruto, the longer we stay, the harder it will be to break this genjutsu. If we never go back, we'll never be able to save Sasuke-kun." Sakura looked pointedly at him and Naruto hung his head, ashamed. "The red moon comes back in four weeks."

He lifted his head. "What do we have to do when it does?"

Now Sakura looked dejected. "I'm not sure exactly. The only way to break Tsukuyomi is another Sharingan user with the same blood as the caster. And with this Sasuke-kun being the way he is…"

Naruto gave her a knowing look at that remark. There was no point in confiding in him, the blabbermouth. "So how are we supposed to explain this all to him _and_ have him help us?"

"We don't." Naruto looked like he was about to question her, but she cut him off. "I've been in contact with Uchiha Itachi. He is not aware of our…situation, but I'm looking into getting his assistance."

Naruto looked as though he couldn't believe his ears. "How in the hell are you going to convince _Itachi_ to help?!" He stood up and rounded on her.

Sakura, on the other hand, slumped. "I have no idea."

* * *

She didn't say at Naruto's long; he kept getting more frustrated with her, yet offered no alternative plans. She in turn only got angry and not wanting him to back out on her, she left. Worst case, he did, she left on her own and flooded his real body with her chakra when she got back. Then beat some sense into him. Her nerves were frazzled, there was no denying that. She had to deal with an S-class criminal, or whatever he was in this world, one of her best friends was dangerously close to bailing on her, and she still had no surefire plan.

She managed to keep herself together until she got to her empty apartment. She moved mechanically to her shower and just stood in the water as if in a trance. Then the gravity of her situation hit her again and she sunk down to sit in the tub and buried her face in her hands.

* * *

Sakura stifled a yawn as she walked onto the training fields. She barely slept out of nerves. Healing a Mangekyou Sharingan user's eyes was a daunting enough task without trying to convince him that this entire world was genjutsu. So far, her only idea was to tap into his frontal lobe and disable the part controlling logic, making him more likely to believe her highly illogical story. It wouldn't make him any more inclined to help her, though. Her only idea with that snag was to appeal to his better nature.

She saw Itachi leaning against a tree, waiting for her. He straightened up when he saw her approach and inclined his head. "Sakura-san."

"Itachi-san." She returned the gesture when they were standing across from each other. He remained impassive, making her unsure of how to proceed. Meanwhile, he observed that her eyes were red rimmed and she looked exhausted. Something was definitely off. "Could you sit down for me, please?" Itachi blinked and stared at her. She shrunk back a little before replying. "It works better for me if we are on a similar level. You're too tall."

He sat down as requested with his back leaning against the same tree trunk while she knelt beside him. She slowly extended her hands and rested them on his temples. When he didn't swat them away, she saw that as a sign to continue. "I'm going to use my chakra to assess the state of your eyes. It will not hurt, but it may be more comfortable for you to close your eyes. Do not activate any version of the Sharingan unless I tell you to." He nodded his assent. She braced herself and began her exam.

The moment her chakra hit his system, it stopped functioning. It froze in his chakra pathway and would not go farther. Panicked, Sakura tried to retract it, but that failed as well. As she was about to ask Itachi if he had any idea as to what was going on, he grabbed her wrists in vice grip. Before she could even process what had happened, he slammed her against the tree with both of her wrists held above her head with one hand with the other rested firmly, though not squeezing, on her throat.

"Who are you?" He was so close to her, she could feel his breath on her face. They were almost nose to nose; he could see the different pigments of green in her eyes.

Said emerald eyes were wide with fear as she gazed into the crimson of the Sharingan against her better judgment. "Y-You already know who I am: Haruno Sakura."

She cried out as he applied more pressure to her throat. "No, you're not. The chakra signature is wrong. I won't ask you again: who are you?"

Desperation screamed in her features. "I _am_ Sakura! How am I supposed to prove that? Should I demonstrate my abilities? Or get into my head with Tsukuyomi? How?!" Tears leaked from her eyes in frustration. She had absolutely no idea why he thought she was an imposter and how in the world was she supposed to convince him otherwise when her chakra signature was apparently wrong? Normally, she'd demand that he ask her a question only she knew the answer to, but the facts of this world were different to the point that she would not know the answer.

She wondered if she and Ino had faced off in the Chuunin Exam here. If so, the fact that Shintenshin no Jutsu had failed would have been noted, but she couldn't risk having Ino in her head and finding out the truth. Perhaps if she could repel Ino, she might be able to repel Itachi's jutsus. That may be proof enough. She doesn't share his blood, but she isn't trying to break it in the proper sense, so it may work. Plus, she had a natural affinity for genjutsu. Then again, this whole world is Tsukuyomi and here she was.

Itachi had never had anyone ask to be submitted to Tsukuyomi, but it would get the truth out of her. No one had ever maintained a lie for the whole three day span. There wasn't another option; he knew she was the Hokage's prodigal apprentice, but no specifics about her skillset nor how rare said skills were. If she had a kekkei genkai, proving her identity would be simple. As much as he disliked torture and found his failsafe illusion rather primitive, it appeared it had to be done.

Sakura saw the tomoe of Itachi's Sharingan spin in circles before slowly blending together into a pinwheel. A small part of her brain urged her to look away while she still had the chance, but she became hypnotized by the ebony wheel. She did manage to shut her eyes before it solidified, protecting her from any genjutsu. She felt Itachi move his hand from her throat to clutch the sides of her mouth and jerked her head so her eyes snapped open out of reflex. Once caught in his gaze again, she became utterly petrified. The world began to spin, as if it were the last of the water draining out of a bathtub. Then, it slowed and was red. The sky was the blood red color of the moon she desperately awaited and she was crucified on a black cross. The medic in her noted that she was held up by shackles and thankfully not nails. She saw an inverted black and white Itachi standing in front of her with a katana drawn, ready to stab her painfully slow.

Just as Itachi was about to impale her in Tsukuyomi, a chakra infused knee went sailing for his stomach from the girl he had restrained in front of him. Not at all ready for a physical attack a matter of seconds after inflicting his feared genjutsu, Itachi didn't have time to react to it. He grunted in pain and surprise and lost his hold of Sakura's wrists as a result. She leapt to her feet and looked absolutely livid. She appeared as though she was going to attempt to rip his coronary artery out with her bare hands. He barely managed to keep the shock off of his features. The only person who had ever broken his Tsukuyomi was Sasuke and while breaking it without possessing the Mangekyou Sharingan was quite a feat, breaking it without having the Sharingan at all was unheard of.

Slowly, the rage slipped off her face into an expression of guarded suspicion. She had slipped into a defensive stance and awaited his next move. Itachi turned his head slightly, even more astonished. If there was ever an opportune time to attack him, this would be it. She had to know that he was completely off-guard and had no understanding of the situation he had found himself in. She clearly wanted something from him and he had to be alive to give it to her, but he was at an absolute loss of what was the correct course of action in interrogating this imposter.

Realization dawning, he brought his hands together and dispelled the illusion. When it faded, he found that Sakura had reversed their earlier positions but instead held a kunai to his throat. She straddled him to prevent any unexpected leg attacks, like the one she performed on him. She watched for his eyes to clear from the glazed over look that came with being under a genjutsu.

He couldn't help but smirk at her antics. "Clever," he commented, "using a genjutsu at that particular moment. That was most ingenious."

She couldn't help the small amount of gratitude that leaked into her features. No one really complimented her abilities, after all, they just expected her brains to get them out of the problem. She had resisted looking at him earlier to focus his attention on changing that. Meanwhile, she had carefully performed seals above her head as to not attract his attention. It was sheer luck that her genjutsu had taken hold before his. Perhaps running out of pure anxiety had caused her chakra to fuel faster than his cool, calm, and collected chakra. Snapping out her musings, she returned her attention to the man in front of her. "Does _that_ prove that I am who I claim to be?" She searched his eyes for an answer.

She mentally swore as many profanities as she could think of when the world started to dissolve for real this time. The sky bled and she felt her feet leave the scorched earth to be mounted on an equally dark cross. She now found herself in the world that she had created for Itachi to see. Said adversary now stood smirking at her from the ground, katana in hand, ready to strike.

"No."

Stars exploded in her vision as he ran the blade through her side. She screamed in anguish and tears of pain fell from her face to mix with the blood on the katana. She kept telling herself that it wasn't as bad as Sasori's in an attempt to will the pain away. There was no poison, no person in the immediate vicinity to save. This time, however, she could not prevent the sword from being removed and causing more damage and potentially cause her to bleed to death. Slow and methodically, he pulled it out and she gasped at the agony. She tried to send healing chakra to the wound, but to no avail: her chakra was useless in Itachi's dimension and she was at his mercy.

Before he could even comprehend what was happening, a fist smashed into the side of his head with what felt like the force of a train. He slammed to the ground, bruising his ribs on impact. A boot ground its way between his shoulder blades and the assailant knelt beside his ear. "Then this should." She let a cool kunai touch the nape of his neck to let him know not to make any sudden moves.

Itachi struggled to swallow from his current angle. He managed to choke out, "How?"

Sakura scoffed. "For claiming that I'm not Sakura, you sure don't know much about her." She paused before continuing, "Mental based jutsu is ineffective on me. My file should note that from my first chuunin exam." Sakura prayed that those events had remained the same in case the Uchiha tried to check up on her, but it was a gamble she had to take. Frankly, she wasn't sure if Inner Sakura would be able to get her out of this one. It had been heavy on her mind, hence it appearing in the genjutsu she cast. It hadn't been her intent, but it had served its purpose. She felt a small pang of sympathy at how flummoxed Itachi must feel, but she needed his help and if it took confusing the hell out of him, so be it. "What's wrong with my chakra?"

"I don't know," he admitted. She ground her boot a little deeper into his back, silently demanding a better answer. That seemed to have triggered him because he rolled out from under her, throwing her off balance. He was on his feet before she could right herself and he grabbed her leg and sent her crashing to the ground, face down. He swiftly grabbed her wrists and yanked her to her feet before smashing them into a tree trunk before her grunt of pain had ended. He sent his knee into her lower back to send the rest of her into the tree before pressing himself against her back, forcibly restraining her. He leaned in next to her ear and spoke quietly. "But it doesn't feel right."

Sakura tried to turn her head slightly so she could speak without scratching her face even more on the rough bark. "Can you please be more specific? I _am_ Sakura, I swear. I might able to explain if I knew what the problem was. It may have to do with my hospital work."

That got Itachi thinking. The Hokage's apprentice would be involved in some heavy duty research and may have exposed her chakra to all sorts of chemicals inadvertently. That wasn't his area of expertise and she could very well be telling the truth. Still skeptical, he decided to explore this idea. "The signature itself is the same, but…" he trailed off uncertainly, grasping for the words to explain. "It's as if the flavor of it is different. Expecting shrimp tempura and getting teriyaki shrimp. They are both shrimp, yet not the same."

Sakura questioned, "And every individual signature is a different meat or vegetable?"

"Yes and while you're shrimp, you aren't the right kind of shrimp." Not the most elegant analogy he'd ever used, but it conveyed his point.

Sakura suddenly had an idea. "Do you remember the huge battle against the Masked Man that you and the rest of the Akatsuki participated in?" She took his silence as a yes and a cue to go on. "Did you find it at all odd that there were two kyuubis fighting?"

Now that she mentioned it, that was a very bizarre day. An ephemeral masked man had spoken to him as if he knew him, while Itachi was positive he had never seen that particular mask before. There had been two of the same bijuu fighting each other, which hadn't made any sense, but his focus had been on keeping the pinkette safe. He had had no desire to get involved in a battle of bijuu. Then, after the battle was over, the masked man was familiar with seemed to have vanished without a trace. "And you know why there were two," he deadpanned.

She nodded as much as the space allowed her to. "Now, this is going to sound completely insane…"

* * *

**I'm sorry, but this is going to have to be a threeshot. There was no way I could reach a resolution without making this update ridiculously long. Review and let me know what you think!**


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